Suspended apparatus for hauling lumber



March 10, 1970 R. o. KOLPE SUSPENDED APPARATUS FOR HAULING LUMBER 2- Sheet-Sheet 1 Filed Nov. 20, 1967 March 10, 1970 R. o. KOLPE'. 3,499,544

I v SUSPENDED APPARATUS FOR HAULING LUMBER Filed Nov. 20, 19 7 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 United States Patent 3,499,544 SUSPENDED APPARATUS FOR HAULING LUMBER US. Cl. 21271 2 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE The invention relates to hauling of lumber from stump to roadside by means of a motor-driven remote-controlled winch. The winch is suspended in a carriage running upon a stationary cable which is suspended above the ground by attachment to standing trees. The pulling wire of the winch extends mainly horizontally from the cable at a sharp angle thereto. The pulling force is counter-balanced by a chain stay attached to the winch and extending in opposite direction to the winch wire. The winch turns freely about a vertical axis in order to enable winching from both sides and from various directions. The winch calrai1 easily be shifted past the suspension points of the ca e.

The mechanized transport of lumber in connection with thinning of woods is complicated out of consideration for the remaining stand of trees. In a known common method the lumber is transported on branch roads by the use of a tractor having a grapple for loading the lumber manually brought together. In this method of transportation the lumber is cut up into various assortments, mainly pulpwood of standardized length, and piled in order to make full use of the capacity of the grapple. The weight of the lumber and the heavy manual collection work call for a system of branch roads having a mutual distance of the order of 20 meters. Processing machines movable in the 'woods have lately been tried which haul out branched logs or unbranched felled trees and process them into various kinds of wooden products or chips. However, the branch roads should still be situated close together due to the quite restricted reach of said machines.

The requirement of a close branch road system is a disadvantage on account of time-consuming planning, the difficulty of finding courses passable by tractors, the comparatively great road area with ensuing tree damages and loss of growth etc. A desideratum in the thinning silviculture is a logging method involving low costs, a thin road network, and a minimum of hard manual labour.

The present invention which has for its object to fulfill said desideratum, consists in a method and an arrangement for hauling lumber from the felling spot to roadside and is characterised mainly in that a supporting cable is suspended in standing trees close to the road in such a manner as to be held away from said trees, in that a radio-controlled motor-driven winch unit is suspended in the cable and held by a stay, e.g. a chain, extending from the winch unit in a mainly horizontal direction on that side of the supporting cable which is opposite to the side of the pulling wire of the working winch unit, and in that the winch unit is moved along the supporting cable and past its suspension points according as the winching work proceeds, so that for a fixed position of the supporting cable, lumber distributed over a wide 3,499,544 Patented Mar. 10, 1970 logging area can be reached by the winch wire and transported to said road.

The invention will now be more fully described with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which FIG. 1 is a general view, and FIG. 2 shows vthe suspended winch unit in a perspective view from below.

In FIG. 1, 11 designates a road along which the lumber is collected and from where, after possible manual or mechanical working up thereof into various assortments, the lumber is carried away upon the road by a wheeled loader, preferably a tractor or truck having a graple. The lumber to be hauled forth to said road may consist of felled trees with or without limbs and of full length or cut into logs or pulpwood pieces. FIG. 1 shows the skidding of delimbed logs of full length, but the invention is not restricted thereto but relates generally to the collection of various kinds of lumber distributed over a cutting area located on one or both sides of the road.

A supporting cable 13 is suspended in approximately the same course as the road or along the same at a height of a few meters, e.g. 3 to 4 meters. By means of braces 15 the cable is fastened to selected trees standing alternately at one and the other side of the road or in another staggered relation and at a mutual distance of 25 to 50 meters. The braces 15 consist of chains, straps or similar put around the trees and having a quite long free end part to which a spring hook 16 (see FIG. 2) is attached which is snapped on the cable 13. The cable running in a mildly bent zig-zag course back and forth across the road, said braces are stretched out from the brace-trees, so that the cable does not rest there-against which would involve rubbing damages to the trees and other inconveniences. The length of the cable is preferably of the order of to 200 meters. At its ends the cable is rigidly fastened at ground level e.g. by means of a chain put around a tree root, and it may be stretched by a tensioning device 14 in order to reduce the sag of cable. As the cable is slidable in the hooks 16, the forces for holding the cable will be distributed upon a number of brace-trees.

Suspended in the cable 13 is a winch unit 17 which in its cover comprises awire drum 19 with horizontal axis and a combustion engine which via a gear and a centrifugal coupling (not shown) turns the drum which is also provided with a brake. With a weight of about 50 kilograms said unit can provide sufiicient power for the hauling work in question. The coupling and the brake can be automatically thrown in and out in connection with the control of the engine speed by means of a remote control device comprising a radio receiver 21 mounted upon the winch unit and a radio transmitter 23 carried by the Woodsman. In order to enable easy shifting of the winch unit to new working positions along the supporting cable, the same is suspended in a carriage running upon the cable 13. Said carriage comprises a yoke 27 and opposite upright shanks 29, 31. The end of each shank forms a fork which is hooked upon the cable and supports the bearing pin of a peripherally grooved wheel 33 or 35, respectively. Attached to the yoke 27 is a straight lever 36 which extends horizontally beyond the wheel 33 in the direction of the cable 13. When shifting the carriage to the other side of the hook 16 the Woodsman climbs a ladder and grasps the end of lever 36 and by depressing the same the wheel 35 is lifted up from the cable so that it can be moved past the hook 16 and lowered onto the cable on the opposite side of said hook. Then the lever is raised to lift the wheel 33, and after rolling the carriage a short distance on the wheel 35 the wheel 33 can be deposited upon the cable on the same side of the hook as the wheel 35. The winch unit is suspended in a hook 38 at the middle of the yoke, and it is evident that the force exerted upon the end of the lever 36 during the above-described shifting operation will be much lower than the weight of the winch unit. Due to the zigzag course of the cable the brace is stretched out at an angle to the vertical, so that the winch unit is held away from the tree enough to avoid contact therewith.

Rigidly secured to the winch unit is a vertical attachment rod 40 which is connected by means of a swivel joint 42 to a shackle 44 hooked upon the hook 38 of the carriage. Due to said swivel connection the winch unit is free to turn about the vertical, so that irrespective ofthe direction in which the winch wire 37 is extended during hauling work the shaft of the winch drum 19 will adjust itself in an angular position approximately perpendicular to said wire, which is a prerequisite for the winding of the wire upon said drum taking place in a safe and regular manner.

In order to maintain the winch unit in a proper and steady position during the work, the same is provided with an anchoring means in the shape of a stay 39, such as a chain, wire or similar, which extends mainly in the horizontal direction and the lower end of which is fastened to a tree or a stump on that side of the supporting cable which is opposite to the side of the winch wire 37. Said anchoring chain stabilizes the cable 13 sidewise by taking up a great part of the reaction force when hauling forth the lumber by the wire 37. As the carriage 27 to is free to roll upon the supporting cable, the winch unit will take a position to place the anchoring chain 39 and the winch wire 37 in substantially the same vertical plane. The upper end of the chain 39 is branched and attached to two points 41, 43 located on the lower part of the winch unit and on the opposite side to the rollers 45, 47, between the winch wire 37, extends as related to a vertical centre line of the winch unit, which line may coincide with the rod or the vertical through the centre of gravity of the freely suspended winch unit.

When the Woodsman has moved the winch unit to a point upon the supporting cable lying approximately opposite to the intended place of winching and has attached the anchoring chain 39 on one side of the road, he pulls out the wire 37 on the opposite side of the road, usually at a sharp angle to the supporting cable, and connects by the chokers 51, 53 one or more of the logs previously felled. These have been felled in a direction such as to facilitate the subsequent skidding thereof to the road. The Woodsman directs the winching by radio control. He walks close to the fore end of the log or bunch of logs and by means of a hooked pole 49 he guides the log bunch past trees and other obstacles. The winch unit being placed comparatively high above ground level, the winching normally takes place without checks, particularly when the logs are hauled with their top ends foremost, the top being bent upwardly similar to the point of a ski.

When all lumber within the present reach of the winch unit has been hauled to the road, the winch unit is moved by disengaging the lower end of the anchoring chain and pulling the same in the direction of the supporting cable until the winch unit arrives at a new point of operation, from Where further lumber. can be reached, the anchoring chain then being fastened again. The winch unit being free to turn about a vertical axis, it is easy to shift between work on opposite sides of the supporting cable.

Generally, during the winching the pulling wire will form an almost right angle to the supporting cable. Therefore it is easy to pile the lumber hauled to the road, as shown in FIG. 1. When it comes to skidding whole trees which should be carried further on the road in their whole length, a more oblique direction of the pulling wire is chosen, e.g. forming an angle of about degrees to the supporting cable.

In the practical operation a winching distance to the supporting cable of meters has proven to be possible and suitable. Thus from a supporting cable of a length of meters it is possible to reach all lumber distributed over a hectare of woodland, and the distance between the roads may be 100 meters. However the road distance and the winching length can be further increased, when terrain conditions are favourable. In comparison to conventional branch road felling with a road distance of 20 meters, the invention involves a quintuplication of the lumber density along the road which is of considerable advantage for the economy of the subsequent truck transportation.

The invention is meant to be practised primarily in thinning of woods, but of course, it can be used also in the final logging.

I claim:

1. Apparatus for hauling lumber from the felling spot to a road suitable for truck transport of the lumber, said apparatus comprising a support cable, first suspending means for suspending said support cable in standing trees close to said road in a manner that said support cable is held away from said trees, a radio-controlled, motor driven which unit movably suspended from said support cable by second suspending means, said second suspending means comprising a carriage, wheels attached to said carriage running upon said support cable, and a single swivel joint between said carriage and said winch unit, a pulling wire extending from said winch unit at an angle from said support cable, which drum means mounted in said winch unit and attached to said pulling wire for taking up or releasing said pulling wire, said second suspending means allowing displacement of said winch unit along the length of said cable and allowing the free turning of said winch unit completely about an axis perpendicular to said cable to accommodate the angular position of said winch drum means so that the axis of the winch drum is always perpendicular to said pulling wire, lumber holding means attached to said pulling wire near the end .of said pulling wire removed from said winch unit, stay means extending from said winch unit in a generally horizontal direction and on the side of the support cable opposite from said pulling wire.

2. Apparatus for hauling lumber from the felling spot to a road suitable for truck transport of the lumber, said apparatus comprising a support cable, first suspending means for suspending said support cable in standing trees close to said road in a manner that said support cable is held away from said trees, a radio-controlled, motordriven winch unit movably suspended from said support cable by second suspending means, said second suspending means comprising a carriage, wheels attached to said carriage running upon said support cable, and a single swivel joint between said carriage and said winch unit, a pulling wire extending from said winch unit at an angle from said support cable, winch drum means mounted in said winch unit and attached to said pulling wire for taking up or releasing said pulling wire, said second suspending means allowing displacement of said winch unit along the length of said cable and allowing the free turning of said winch unit completely about an axis perpendicular to said cable to accommodate the angular position of said winch drum means so that the axis of the winch drum is always perpendicular to said pulling wire, lumber holding means attached to said pulling wire near the end of said pulling wire removed from said winch unit, stay means extending from said winch unit in a generally horizontal direction and on the side of the support cable opposite from said pulling wire and lever means attached to the carriage and extending generally parallel to said support cable beyond said wheels to allow the manual uplifting of one Wheel of said ca riage at a time 5 6 from said support cable when shifting said support cable 3,094,222 6/1963 McAllister 212-87 past said first suspension means. 2,547,935 4/1951 Grabin'ski 21295 3,022,747 2/1962 McIntyre 212-87 References Cited HARVEY C. HORNSBY, Primary Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 5 1,380,830 6/1921 Neller 212134 U.S. Cl. X.R. 2,710,107 6/1955 Powell 254-168 2,987,786 6/1961 Smith 2l2134 

